241 Toll Road Extension Update...

If you live in Southern Orange County or are planning on moving into the area...this information is critical. If you would like to see the proposed map of the area, please email me directly and I will forward it to you. After hearing feedback from Board Members and the community, TCA staff performed additional technical analysis to determine the location of the southern terminus of the four‐mile 241 extension project, which was proposed in October and expected to travel from the road’s current terminus at Oso Parkway to the Ortega Highway area. The Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency Board of Directors voted to continue the engineering, environmental, traffic and financial analysis of the extension and provide an interim terminus at a future road called Cow Camp Road near San Juan Capistrano. At a future date ‐‐ and when the adjacent local transportation system is complete in the unincorporated area north of Ortega Highway and east of Antonio Parkway ‐‐ a permanent SR 241 interchange will be built at future “G Street.” This segment is 4.8 miles long and will provide more direct access to Antonio Parkway and Ortega Highway than the plan presented in October. An important consideration in the analysis was how the SR 241 extension project will work with the roadway circulation system that is planned for this area of the county. Cow Camp Road is planned to run parallel to Ortega Highway, to the north of San Juan Creek. Cow Camp Road will be the area’s major east‐west arterial roadway with two to three lanes in each direction. It is projected to carry 30,000+ trips a day in 2035. Ortega Highway will become a secondary road with one lane in each direction through this area and is estimated to carry 6,000 trips a day in 2035. The engineering, environmental, traffic and financial analysis is scheduled to be complete in October 2012 and construction could begin shortly thereafter. The construction cost is estimated at $200 million. Environmental impacts of the project have been minimized through project design features and can be successfully mitigated. One of the design features included in the 4.8‐mile project is the construction of three wildlife crossings to insure continued wildlife movement through the area.